By: Barrientos S.B. No. 1447
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the requirements for identifying former municipal
1-2 landfills and notifying the owners of the overlaying property.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 363.064, Health and Safety Code, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 363.064. CONTENTS OF REGIONAL OR LOCAL SOLID WASTE
1-7 MANAGEMENT PLAN. (a) A regional or local solid waste management
1-8 plan must:
1-9 (1) include a description and an assessment of current
1-10 efforts in the geographic area covered by the plan to minimize
1-11 production of municipal solid waste, including sludge, and efforts
1-12 to reuse or recycle waste;
1-13 (2) identify additional opportunities for waste
1-14 minimization and waste reuse or recycling;
1-15 (3) include a description and assessment of existing
1-16 or proposed community programs for the collection of household
1-17 hazardous waste;
1-18 (4) make recommendations for encouraging and achieving
1-19 a greater degree of waste minimization and waste reuse or recycling
1-20 in the geographic area covered by the plan;
1-21 (5) encourage cooperative efforts between local
1-22 governments in the siting of landfills for the disposal of solid
1-23 waste;
1-24 (6) consider the need to transport waste between
2-1 municipalities, from a municipality to an area in the jurisdiction
2-2 of a county, or between counties, particularly if a technically
2-3 suitable site for a landfill does not exist in a particular area;
2-4 (7) allow a local government to justify the need for a
2-5 landfill in its jurisdiction to dispose of the solid waste
2-6 generated in the jurisdiction of another local government that does
2-7 not have a technically suitable site for a landfill in its
2-8 jurisdiction;
2-9 (8) establish recycling rate goals appropriate to the
2-10 area covered by the plan;
2-11 (9) recommend composting programs for yard waste and
2-12 related organic wastes that may include:
2-13 (A) creation and use of community composting
2-14 centers;
2-15 (B) adoption of the "Don't Bag It" program for
2-16 lawn clippings developed by the Texas Agricultural Extension
2-17 Service; and
2-18 (C) development and promotion of education
2-19 programs on home composting, community composting, and the
2-20 separation of yard waste for use as mulch;
2-21 (10) include an inventory of municipal solid waste
2-22 landfill units, including:
2-23 (A) landfill units no longer in operation;
2-24 (B) [,] the exact boundaries [location] of each
2-25 former landfill unit or, if the exact boundaries are not known, the
2-26 best approximation of each unit's boundaries;
3-1 (C) a map showing the approximate boundaries of
3-2 each former landfill unit, if the exact boundaries are not known;
3-3 (D) [such units,] the current owners of the land
3-4 on which the former landfill units were located;[,] and
3-5 (E) the current use of the land;
3-6 (11) assess the need for new waste disposal capacity;
3-7 (12) include a public education program; and
3-8 (13) include waste reduction in accordance with the
3-9 goal established under Section 361.0201(d), to the extent that
3-10 funds are available.
3-11 (b) If the boundaries of a municipal solid waste unit that
3-12 is no longer operating are known to be wholly on an identifiable
3-13 tract, the council of governments for the area in which the former
3-14 landfill unit is located [Each council of governments] shall notify
3-15 the owner of land that overlays the [overlies a] former landfill
3-16 [municipal solid waste] unit [within the council of government's
3-17 jurisdiction] of the former use of the land and shall notify the
3-18 county clerk of the county or counties in which the former landfill
3-19 unit is located of the former use. The notice requirements of this
3-20 subsection do not apply if the exact boundaries of a former
3-21 landfill unit are not known.
3-22 (c) The county clerk shall record on the deed records of
3-23 land formerly used as a municipal solid waste landfill a
3-24 description of the exact boundaries of the former landfill unit,
3-25 or, if the exact boundaries are not known, the best approximation
3-26 of each unit's boundaries, together with a legal description of the
4-1 parcel or parcels of land in which the former landfill unit is
4-2 located [pertinent part of the land], notice of its former use, and
4-3 notice of the restrictions on the development or lease of the land
4-4 imposed by this subchapter. The county clerk shall make the
4-5 records available for public inspection.
4-6 (d) [(c)] The municipalities and counties within each
4-7 council of governments shall cooperate fully in compiling the
4-8 inventory of landfill units.
4-9 (e) [(d)] Each council of governments shall provide a copy
4-10 of the inventory of municipal solid waste landfill units to the
4-11 commission and to the chief planning official of each municipality
4-12 and county in which a unit is located. The commission and the
4-13 officials shall make the inventory available for public inspection.
4-14 (f) [(e)] The commission may grant money from fees collected
4-15 under Section 361.013 to a municipality or association of
4-16 municipalities for the purpose of conducting the inventory required
4-17 by this section.
4-18 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
4-19 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
4-20 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-21 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-22 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-23 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.